Community Wellbeing - for a thriving community

"Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being, and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity."
- World Health Organization

For more than two decades, Keystone has been actively working towards the holistic wellbeing of indigenous communities, promoting ecologically balanced development with various indigenous communities. Despite rising income, indigenous communities have not seen a corresponding increase in both qualitative wellbeing and quantitative health outcomes. Seeing this discrepancy inspired Keystone to stage various interventions to realize a healthier, more wholesome future for indigenous communities.

The premise of our programme is that rapid change in indigenous communities has been coupled with significant socio-cultural losses. The decline of social cohesion, the rapid rate of change, and the lack of socio-cultural infrastructure to fill the void created by this change has led to indigenous communities experiencing a lack of overall wellbeing despite relatively better economic fortunes. The Keystone health programme looks to understand the linkages of people’s health to their culture and environment, and find ways to improve people’s wellbeing despite rapid social, cultural, and economic change.

Theme introduction

Programme Components

CHALLENGES

Bridging the knowledge gap regarding health issues within communities • Changing the notion of health delivery • Creating better monitoring systems and trainings to create sustainable community health workers for a longer period • Bringing awareness to the links between health outcomes and socio-cultural factors

INTERVENTIONS

Community health monitoring is happening in the Nilambur area, especially concerning reproductive health of young women and mothers • Accessing social entitlement and support for people who have mental health issues • Encouraging use of traditional medicine alongside western medicine • Identifying interconnectedness of socio-cultural factors and health

IMPACTS

Identifying the triggers for ill health and behaviour modification with the community members • Better unity and social support • The communities are being able to take ownership over their health • Being able to access traditional healing systems and improve the quality of life